hicken she expected
to have. "Of course he will be of my color," said she, "but his feathers
will shine brightly. He will be a great flyer, too. I am sure that is
what it means when the egg is light." She came off the nest each day
just long enough to stroll around and chat with her friends, telling
them what wonderful things she expected, and never letting them forget
that it was she who had laid the shiny egg. She pecked airily at the
food, and seemed to think that a Hen who was hatching such a wonderful
Chicken should have the best of everything. Each day she told some new
beauty that was to belong to her child, until the Shanghai Cock fairly
flapped his wings with impatience.

Day after day passed, and the garden beyond the barn showed rows of
sturdy green plants, where before there had been only straight ridges of
fine brown earth. The Swallows who were building under the eaves of the
great barn, twittered and chattered of the wild flowers in the forest,
and four other Hens came off their nests with fine broods of downy
Chickens. And still the Dorking Hen sat on her shiny egg and told what a
wonderful Chicken she expected to hatch. This was not the only egg in
the nest now, but it was the only one of which she spoke.

At last a downy Chicken peeped out of one of the common eggs, and
wriggled and twisted to free himself from the shell. His mother did not
hurry him or help him. She knew that he must not slip out of it until
all the blood from the shell-lining had run into his tender little body.
If she had pushed the shell off before he had all of this fine red
blood, he would not have been a strong Chicken, and she wanted her
children to be strong.

The Dorking Cock walked into the Hen-house and stood around on one foot.
He came to see if the shiny egg had hatched, but he wouldn't ask. He
thought himself too dignified to show any interest in newly hatched
Chickens before a Hen. Still, he saw no harm in standing around on one
foot and letting the Dorking Hen talk to him if she wanted to. When she
told him it was one of the common eggs that had hatched, he was quite
disgusted, and stalked out of doors without a word.

The truth was that he had been rather bragging to the other Cocks, and
only a few minutes later he spoke with pride of the time when "our"
shiny egg should hatch. "For," he said, "Mrs. Dorking and I have been
quite alone here as far as our own people are concerned. It is not
strange that we should fe